Congratulation to Cristina and Cosmin for their successful ascent. I had the opportunity to meet Cosmin in Alaska and have a short conversation. He is one of the best romanian climber, nowadays and a nice person too.Bafta.

Thank you Andreea and thank you Atti! The trip was super fun.Brad, damn right - they've even noticed it in '57 when they climbed Machhapuchhare and did not look that young then either; In any case, lucky us for the privilege

The article makes it sound like they did the climb, but stopped a few feet from the summit because it was a sacred mountain. Such is often customary in the Himalaya. For example, for several decades, climbers were asked to stop a few feet short of the summit of Kanchenjunga to avoid offending the gods. On all climbs where they did this (supposedly the true summit wasn't "defiled" until the 1990's when someone broke the rule) the climbers were given credit for climbing the mountain.

The photo caption makes it sound like they only stopped 1 meter from the summit? Is this correct?

Last edited by Scott on Thu May 30, 2013 4:14 am, edited 2 times in total.

Joe Brown and G Band stopped 1.5 m (5feet) below Kanchenjunga summit - would that be the biggest news now? Actual FA of Kanch not by JB and GB?

Wether the mountain is sacred or not it was not for us to decide. The Govt of Nepal does not register it as such, nor appears as such anywhere - a few locals considered that as it is linked by the ridge to Machhapuchhare it must be and seemed to be for them... (plus the name). Rather than argue why then not Annapurna 3 or Mardi Himal as well we preferred to stop 1 meter below the very top (a customary compromise when local sensitivity is called into discussion). Alternative was to light incense sticks, fly back and say goodbye to $$ spent on permits and access to otherwise a legitimate climb.

As a Catholic I have no opinion on Gods of Summits - only about the beliefs of local people and try to find a reasonable solution.

PS. The Govt of Nepal upon receiving our 2 GPS recordings and summit photos considered the peak summited and issue accordingly certificates.

If the local population has a custom or belief system about the peak, but does not necessarily bar access, then stopping a few feet short of the top seems a reasonable thing to do. I have done the same on some Indian Reservation summits in AZ/UT.

The gods, whoever they may be, caused me to twist my ankle descending Navajo Mtn in Utah a few years ago. I summitted but did not actually tag the top rock, just standing beside it. But I didn't have a permit. It seemed like a fair trade to me.

Consider the scenario that you have climbed many thousands of feet or meters, then get to a broad (non-sacred) summit with a few rock piles and spires here and there, and to the best of your ability you tagged them all, but the terrain is such that you couldn't know for certain if you got the highest one... but you knew for certain you couldn't have missed it by more than a foot. So, do you count the peak as climbed or not? Would any reasonable person debate over such a trivial detail?

If these climbers were 1 m below the summit, but between them and the summit was a deep chasm, then I'd think differently. Here, I believe it is perfectly acceptable what they did and deserve the credit.